Whitney Port and her husband Tim Rosenman were shocked when I said I first found their video series on Facebook. Or rather, that she found me.
I myself did not expect it. Although I primarily use Facebook to keep in touch with my family around the world, I occasionally find myself scrolling through an increasingly chaotic feed. It was there, in the abyss of shoddy, wacky videos that Port and Rosenman’s reaction series, watching and discussing episodes of MTV’s hit reality show and my high school favorite, The Hills, somehow found me.
Episodes of Port and Rosenman’s Facebook show, which are usually 25 minutes long, mysteriously blended in with the quirky collection of videos that are now typical of my feed. The mystery was that I don’t follow Port’s Facebook page and have never liked or engaged with The Hills content. And the videos that are suggested to me usually have nothing to do with my interests. Suffice to say, I didn’t expect Facebook’s algorithm to surface in a years-old era of reality TV that once haunted me.
With little transparency into how Facebook makes decisions about what to suggest to me, each new episode of Reacting to the Hills that appears at the top of my Facebook feed leaves me wondering: How did you find me, Whitney Port? Was it a fluke or is the algorithm improving?
The Mystery of Facebook Ad Targeting
Facebook doesn’t get me: My feed is overwhelmingly a confusing assortment of scripted videos of “jokes” and scenarios like “she POISONS him on their wedding night.” It’s mostly a nuisance.
While I spend most of my reporting revealing the nefarious ways ads and data tracking can harm you, I hate to admit that it ended up being a pleasant surprise to be targeted by the algorithm with something I really liked.
For those of you who weren’t avid consumers of MTV’s early reality universe, the name of the show (or Port’s) might not ring a bell. Its perhaps best-known predecessor, Laguna Beach, followed wealthy high school students in Orange County until one of the leads, Lauren Conrad, moved to Los Angeles for an internship. Thus began the multi-season spin-off The Hills, where we finally met Port. Now an author and fashion designer, Port was introduced as Conrad’s no-nonsense and hard-working co-intern. As fans of The Hills will remember, she is the girl who famously did Go to Paris. (A bit.) Rosenman, for his part, is a television producer who met Port while working on The City, his Hills in New York spin-off, and whose resume also includes work on The X Factor.
It was a simpler time: reality stars were beautiful but not perfect. Some of their lifestyles were enviable but, I thought, achievable. Her drama was juicy but not stressful. Even the Kardashians had day jobs back then.
But I probably wouldn’t have searched for a show I’ve already watched unless Facebook suggested it. Facebook offered little information about how the reaction program found its way to my feed, except to say that it suggests pages, groups, and events based on content I’ve expressed interest in. Taking a look at what Facebook has collected as “ad topics”, you might be interested. in provided some potential clues: Mixed with generic topics like “modern art” and “cosmetics and fashion” – which, sure, that tracks – Facebook wrongly assumed I like the dating reality shows Love Island and Bachelors in Paradise.
There is little transparency about how or why Facebook thought it was interested in those topics. Pages or groups that I liked had fewer responses and were largely a mix of former employers, city-specific halal food directories, and wedding vendors I worked with.
It’s certainly possible that Facebook’s algorithm has been trained to assume that some combination of interests assigned to me would mean that I would likely enjoy Port and Rosenman’s version of a reality series I watched over 14 years ago. It’s also possible that the many opaque ways Facebook tracks me through its own apps, like Instagram and other non-Meta websites, have revealed my obsession with reality TV.
Lacking answers, I turned to the only people I thought could explain why this particular ghost from the pop culture past was visiting me.
‘We don’t really use Facebook’
The short answer is that Port and Rosenman don’t really know.
“We don’t really use Facebook at all,” they said in late 2022. Their series began in earnest in the early days of the pandemic and lives on YouTube. They have since rewatched other shows in their universe like The City, Laguna Beach, and Siesta Key.
In many ways, Facebook was an afterthought. It wasn’t until Studio 71, a production company that helps creators monetize their content online, suggested leveraging Port’s existing presence “from when people were on Facebook” that the couple even considered sharing it there, Rosenman said.
“And they handled most of it,” he said. Studio 71 declined interview requests.
Port’s Facebook page is like a time capsule: As far as their 457,000 Facebook followers go, the couple is still in the midst of rewatching The Hills.
Port and Rosenman have never heard from Facebook and say only about a quarter of their ad revenue comes from the Meta-owned platform, so they’re a little less engaged. “I haven’t gone to the comment section and talked [to followers]Rosenmann said. “It’s just a matter of bandwidth.”
They admit their show has niche appeal: People who weren’t in high school or college when The Hills aired might not immediately recognize it, let alone their names. Still, YouTube took an immediate interest and reached out to help promote and improve the show soon after they started.
It’s on YouTube that Rosenman, who handles much of the promotion and audience engagement, has created what they describe as a deeply engaged community.
“I know it sounds cheesy, but everyone feels really connected and the community has started to really get to know each other,” Port told me. “In chat they’ll say, ‘Oh, Stevie, how was your first date?’ And they have never met before.
After video chatting with them for nearly an hour, it was easy to see why fans might be particularly drawn to the couple. The couple came to the video call as they were. Rosenman briefly answered the phone from his bed in his Los Angeles home before getting up to find Port, who was wearing a clay face mask and tan hoodie. They immediately apologized when Port ran off screen because his son’s playdate wasn’t going as well as expected.
It’s hard for me to explain to people who didn’t care for The Hills as soft-brained, easily influenced teenagers like me why I’ve been so drawn to their series. But there’s something healing about revisiting a show I watched at that age through the eyes of a cast member who lived through it and hers now her husband.
In the videos, Rosenman jokes around and asks Port how certain moments may have been influenced by the producers. He plays the role of the bystander, getting answers to some of the burning questions a teenage self might have had. And Port continues to be the voice of reason, offering thoughts on his castmates’ and friends’ real motivations or ways they could have handled situations better.
It has also been healing for Port, he said.
Rewatching the show eased the impostor syndrome she once felt and made her “really grateful for that and took a little bit of the resentment out of her,” she explained.
“I came on the show when I was 20 years old… and I thought that since I had this success very young, everything I got after that was the result of being on a TV show and not because of my talent.”
The pair have two things that many co-hosts work for years to cultivate: a built-in relationship, and the ability to share sometimes juicy but mostly contextual information that provides behind-the-scenes insights into their chosen topic. But mostly, they’re sitting on their couch sweating and reflecting on the life Port once lived.
“It’s the easiest part of my job,” Port said. “My ideal relaxing end-of-the-night scenario is to sit on the couch together and watch TV. … We can have it once or twice a week when filming this show.”
